Abstract
Attention is rhythmic. Or is it, really? Research has demonstrated that sustained attention (i.e., our ability to stay focused on certain aspects of our surroundings for longer periods), fluctuates periodically, and that attention accordingly is inherently rhythmic. However, while rhythmic monitoring of our surroundings might be sufficient and even beneficial in some situations, other contexts require continuous monitoring of our surroundings. It is currently not clear to what extent the assumed rhythmic nature of attention is modifiable by variations in task demands.
In her talk, Maja will present her current project which aims to investigate to what extent attention is rhythmic depending on variations in the demand for rhythmic vs. non-rhythmic processing of sensory events.
Bio
Maja Dyhre Foldal is a postdoctoral researcher at the RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies of Rhythm, Time, and Motion and the Department of Psychology at the University of Oslo. Her background is from cognitive neuroscience, and she is deeply interested in how we, according to our momentary goals, manage to filter the vast flow of information from our surroundings (i.e., sustained selective attention). She uses behavioral experiments combined with electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings to investigate neural mechanisms and dynamics supporting our ability to focus our attention for longer periods.